I'm out for a few days

Hey 'yall...I'm gonna be gone for a week or two (Hopefully just a week) starting tomorrow.

I'm headed up to Ann Arbor, Michigan to do some tech work for a company that bought a few robots, mills, and lathes from us at work.

I'll probably be having BOC withdrawal fits the whole time I'm there...but odds are I'll be so busy that I won't feel like doing anything afterwards but headin' back to my room at the Hilton...jumping in the jacuzzi...havin' a couple cold beers...reading a good book...and crashing out.

This should be an experience...never been up north before.

We'll see what they think of a Kansas catfishin' redneck up there among million $$ homes.

Wonder if my new Kansas Jayhawks cap will be a BIG HIT up in Wolverine country?? :wink:

Peace to all you brothers and sisters...I leave out of Tulsa, Ok Sunday afternoon...and will be back the following Friday.

Well, I made it back in one piece, but can't say this was much of a working "vacation"...lol.

I went to train their people how to perform set up and day to day operations of a lathe, a mill, and a robot.

It was all supposed to be up and running before I got there...this is what I'm told....lol. (somebodys idea of a bad joke!)

This equipment is still partially packed up in crates...critical components are missing in action...there is no hydraulic fluid, way oil, circulating oil, or coolant.

Not to mention the water, air, and power supplies...or to be more specific...the lack thereof.

So for the first 3 days of a four day tour....I was fabricating components, mixing and filling various chemicals and oils, performing critical quality measurements with primitive instruments not designed for which they in fact ended up doing, chasing down parts from local and regional suppliers, and operating as a vastly underpaid consultant with factory technicians and engineers from across the country on things I had no previous knowledge of.

In other words I was performing jobs WAYYY above my paygrade....but in the end the machinery did in fact end up running before I left...the very last machine...an evil hearted SOB...spit out it's first acceptable and dimensionally correct component part 20 minutes before I was to leave for my departing flight.

Outside of work was alright...but there's definately a whole bunch of people in that Detroit area.

Too many for a small town redneck catfisherman like me.

The Hilton was a very nice place to stay...had a good car to myself...the various Irish pubs, gormet pizza parlors, and german pubs and restraunts had some great food.

Didn't get to visit the Henry Ford Museum like I wanted to...but really what fun would it be by yourself? The whole point is to share it with a close and like minded friend.

Did get to cruise a small lake (Chucamanga??) and enjoy a pint or three of some local brewed wheat beer and a GREAT Reuben sandwich at one of the Irish pubs with a guy from the plant where I was working...as well as check out his horse ranch and meet his wonderful family. (Arabians and Quarters)

Met some good and interesting people on the floor there at work...but I swear that if I never hear the expression..."Eh"...EVER again...that'd be just fine with me...lol.

Everybody's in such a big hurry...and it's such a huge sprawling and intimidating place.

Whole different culture up there in Michigan....I'm sure it suits them to a t...but as for me and mine...we'll just call little ol' rural Cherokee County, Kansas with its wide open and vacant spaces along with its lush river bottoms the simplest and most heart warming terms of all....Home. (And it's good to be back!!)

Cherokee County, Kansas (The entire county including 4 towns and a handful of unincorporated towships, and then the rural folks)...population= approx. 10,000